The stock, which languished for a decade, recently broke out to fresh 12-year highs despite the broad market’s swoon. The pop has coincided with growing optimism that the company’s U.S. operations are improving.

“After four years of on-again-off-again attempts to right the U.S. business, Wal-Mart appears to be regaining its sales momentum,” says Michael Exstein, an analyst at Credit Suisse.

Shares are up 0.6% at $65.95. Wal-Mart is the best performing Dow component over the last month, up 12%, while the blue-chip index has declined 7.3%.

Investors have been flocking to defensive-minded companies that pay hefty dividends, like Wal-Mart, over the last few months in an attempt to combat the market’s latest bout of volatility. These types of companies are appealing because profits and margins hold up better when economic growth slows as opposed to cyclically oriented sectors like financials and technology.

For Wal-Mart, “a combination of strong first-quarter results and a rotation into ‘defensive’ stocks has resulted in strong price performance over the last month,” Exstein says. “The trick will be sustaining this performance, but chances are looking better than they have in a long time that this could happen.”

From April 2000 through earlier this year, Wal-Mart shares remained stuck predominantly between $45 and $60. The stock breached $60 on a few occasions, but reverted back each time. Now, the stock looks poised to make its first run at $70 since late 1999.

Thanks for reading MarketBeat. We would like to direct you to MoneyBeat, the Wall Street Journal’s brand new global blog. MoneyBeat unites MarketBeat, The Source, Overheard and all the Deal Journal blogs, bringing together all the market, M&A, IPO and hedge-fund news from those blogs into a 24-hour hub for finance news. Check it out and let us know what you think at moneyblog@wsj.com.

About MarketBeat

MarketBeat looks under the hood of Wall Street each day, finding market-moving news, analyzing trends and highlighting noteworthy commentary from the best blogs and research. MarketBeat is updated frequently throughout the day, helping investors stay on top of what’s happening in the markets. Lead writers Paul Vigna and Steven Russolillo spearhead the MarketBeat team, with contributions from other Journal reporters and editors. Have a comment? Write to paul.vigna@wsj.com or steven.russolillo@wsj.com.